


Northern Lights

by CorpseBrigadier



Category: Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushuu | EarthBound
Genre: Background Apple Kid, First Kiss, Improbable Inventions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:42:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23877856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorpseBrigadier/pseuds/CorpseBrigadier
Summary: Sometime after the world is saved, Jeff and Tony engineer another escape from Snow Wood.
Relationships: Jeff Andonuts/Tony
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40
Collections: Minigame: Round 1





	Northern Lights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [youjik33](https://archiveofourown.org/users/youjik33/gifts).



He remembered the last time that there’d been an escape and how he’d laid down and asked Jeff to step on him. 

Perhaps that wasn’t  _ quite  _ how he’d phrased it, of course, but Tony had thought at the time that it was a very noble sort of thing to do. It was a sacrifice, he’d thought--as happens with the person in a story who isn’t the hero but is fatally wounded in the midst of getting the hero to safety. He remembered thinking that if Jeff were to accidentally crush him to death in getting over the wall--if by some freak happenstance he broke a rib and it broke it at such an angle that it flew off and pierced his heart--he would give a very grave speech about how it was all okay, and that Jeff must be strong in the face of the trials before him.

As it went, it turned out the muddying of his coat hadn’t quite been fatal. Nevertheless, Tony remembered looking at it through that night with a sense of great solemnity. He wondered if Jeff, whenever he got to whatever great destiny it was that the world had for him, ever remembered treading on it. 

If it hadn’t been for his subsequent discovery and chastisement and cancelled birthday party, he might have hidden that coat away, never to be washed. He thought that  _ this time _ if they made it clear, he’d find some better memento of the occasion. Memories stuck to you longer when you had something to touch.

He looked up and watched as Jeff finished picking the lock to the gate, a look of bright satisfaction flashing over his features when he heard the click of the tumblers. He’d apparently moved beyond bent keys and the machine that replicated them. Wiping his fogged glasses off with the edge of his scarf, he looked to Tony and gestured for him to follow.

“Are we going to the lake?” Tony asked a little nervously. 

“We can if that’s where you want to go.”

Tony recalled that a number of new rules and regulations had appeared in the student handbook following Jeff’s return, most prominent being the prohibition against visiting locations with documented cryptids in the absence of a permission slip. This--in addition to the total ban on bubblegum--were the laws of Snow Wood that now bore the harshest penalties.

Jeff didn’t seem to want to wait for an answer. His boots were already crunching on ahead as he moved towards the hills and trees. Tony decided that the lake would be fine.

When they got there, the society members had already retreated to their tents for the evening, apparently having decided that there was little use watching for Tessie if there wasn’t light enough to see her, The sky was clear for once, and Tony blinked up to see it was freckled with stars. 

“Jeff?” he asked. “Why did you bring me here?”

“There’s a geomagnetic storm out tonight--or there will be.”

“Jeff,” Tony replied. “I don’t see any clouds.”

“First off, it’s not that sort of storm,” Jeff said, unloading something from his backpack. “Second off, there won’t be one until we put it there.”

Tony watched as Jeff put a red and spherical something-or-another on the ground. Upon a close inspection, Tony noticed a pair of slots along the top. It looked a little like a toaster.

“Is that--”

“It’s a toaster, Tony--a very special one,” Jeff said. “It’s meant for toasting apples. I developed it in tandem with a consultant.”

“Uh… that sounds cool. Why are we making toast though?”

“Well, we discovered after a few trial runs that if you orient it in the right direction, it can alter the state of various  atmospheric constituents... even in the absence of  a coronal mass ejection.”

Tony said nothing. Instead he nodded vigorously as though he understood what had just been said to him. 

“The toast, it turns out…” Jeff sat down on the frozen grass. “...isn’t very good.”

He flipped on the device, and Tony heard a faint ticking sound as Jeff flopped himself onto the frozen ground. He gestured for Tony to join him.

At first nothing happened. The only things Tony could see were the tips of the trees, the fog of his breath, and the stars. Then, there was a “ding!” and he saw a faint stripe in the sky, glowing white until it drifted into a band of green.

It went violet at the edges, almost blue, and then it shifted into pink. On and on they danced, and Tony’s eyes widened with what he supposed must be the same delight he’d had as a child watching fireworks. It was intermingled with something deeper though: the heady pound of his own heart as he thought how he had been brought out here--he and nobody else--to see this sight alone. He felt dizzy even though he lay flat on the ground.

“Jeff…” he said quietly. “This is amazing.”

Jeff didn’t say anything, but as the show of lights continued to warp and dance above them, Tony gradually felt the warmth of a hand pressed into his own.

Their eyes turned to each other almost simultaneously, and even in dim light of the aurora above them, Tony saw the sort of nervous shyness in Jeff’s features. It was familiar. It was the sort of quiet expression Jeff wore when he wasn’t being reckless.

It seemed to him then that maybe he should be reckless himself for once.

He thought in the moment that it was all about to go wrong when he pulled the two of them suddenly close, snow dampening his clothing as he tried to fumble his way into a kiss, He thought for a second that he might miss: that he might accidentally kiss his nose or something and then have to explain himself and apologize for an unwanted kiss that didn’t even land right.

There was a profound relief when Jeff took matters into his own hands and adjusted his aim. 

**Author's Note:**

> See my [profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorpseBrigadier/profile) for notes on remixes, podfic, derivative works, and constructive criticism.


End file.
